Whilst most of his contemporaries have been condemned to fate by the endemic poverty and surge of unemployment currently ravaging the spirit of most Nigerians, this ascetic rises tall; booming, thriving and prospering as an Entrepreneur.
Oluwatimilehin Joseph Sanwo, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Crystal hills Software Limited is a character that has created an alcove for himself in the International and Communications Technology (IT) sector. The innovative and creative ideas he introduces into IT business in Nigeria are consummate and unparalleled.
Born in Lagos to the family of a Civil Servant from Ijebu-Mushin, in Ogun State, this dark skinned-complexioned prodigy is today not only an employer of labour, his zeal for success without blotch is awe-inspiring and astonishing.
Professionally, a PR expert, Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye took time to appraise what this successful entrepreneur stands for; the secret behind his success story and reports that he found out that this rational and distinctive personality has gone beyond what an ordinary mouth could explain if not beyond the cosmos.
Please read the interview with this 29 years old 2011 Food Technology graduate of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye with budding passion for IT vis-a-vis his innovative ideas, projects, products and recognitions.
Excerpts;
Life as an Entrepreneur
In his words, poverty is booming in Nigeria because most Nigerian graduates have misplaced their priority with unrealistic, inconsistent and unproductive acts.
“I have never for once thought of looking for a job. I have been an entrepreneur when I was in the University. As a student, I developed an Examination Results Computation Soft ware for my department and I got paid for it. In fact, I got a lucrative job offer after my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) but what I saw during my youth service was hell and discouraging. I saw corruption, ineptitude and exploitation. I felt like why enslaving myself when I can create jobs, with all due respect! I made my first million through soft ware programming in my final year at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye.
“As a Youth Corper, I was the head of ICT at the orientation camp. I was always in the control room doing routine maintenance of computer gadgets of the camp. I also spoke as a resource person five times in camp, enlightening my fellow corps member on how to be self employed through IT. Instead of using my IT skills to do unproductive active like some people, I used mine legitimately. Through my advocacies, I influenced many lives to tow the path of honour. When I applied for redeployment from Delta to Ogun state at NYSC camp, the state coordinator was sad; i saw dissatisfaction on his face but he had no choice than to release me.
“So, after my NYSC, I institutionalized Crystalhills Ltd which is today an employer of labour with about 20 staff. We pay taxes, salaries monthly and utility bills. We are incorporating idea and adding values to the business of IT. Officially, this is our fourth year but today we have achieved much to ourselves. The entirety of the management and staff of Crystalhills Soft Ware Ltd that I am presiding over is much committed to the growth of IT business in Nigeria.
“We are already fighting insecurity and saving lives and property through IT with well codified motion detector and CCTV Surveillance Camera. Crytalhills reduces stress, anxiety and organizational hardship through IT with biometric attendance machine of various types. Life as an entrepreneur has been so inspiring, captivating and tantalizing.
“I want to advise the youth of today to be more productive, prolific, creative and diligent. If you are not creative and value added, we can’t work together. Above all, I thank God for his mercy, favour and grace.”
His Concepts of Programming, Soft Ware’s Development, Products and Services
One after the other, Timi states explicitly and without ambiguity how his organization has been adding values to the world of IT. He was meticulous in his articulations. His concepts of programming, bulk SMS, soft ware and web development, CCTV and Motion Detector’s installations and sales of hard ware is matchless and inimitable.
“At Crystalhills, we write and design applications; we write soft ware applications that will be able to inter-face with hard wares. One thing that makes our soft wares different is that we place our orders from the United States, China and Japan and programme exactly the applications desired by our clients into them. What most IT firms in Nigeria do is to import already programmed soft wares into Nigeria and sell to customers. Most times, those soft wares programmed from abroad are antithesis to the business ecology of Nigeria, but ours is being done in a unique way.
“We only import hard ware to Nigeria. We write applications that are ecologically effective in Nigeria. We design applications that address the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerian corporate consumers; just as UK Company will write applications that suits its environment.”
Oluwatimileyin added that Crystalhills do not just place orders for their hard ware from market, it buys directly from manufacturing companies in Asia, Europe and America embedded with warranty.
Speaking further, the 2011 winner of the “Most Scientific Creative Student” award in OOU spoke on the number soft ware applications that Crystalhills has successfully designed and are already in use in the Nigerian market;
“Today, we have developed a School Management Application System (SMAS) with our programming skills. This application has a hard ware inter-face. The school management application system is a soft ware that takes over the whole administrative functions of a school. I led the team that developed this application.
He also explains expressly the essential features and benefits of SMAS;
“This application is designed to function like a data bank for all students in a school. It has an auto-report card generation system, it generates report card for all students. The application is a radical departure of the manual mode of preparing report cards for students after mid and end of term examinations. The application also has an auto attendance system; with this application, you don’t need an attendance register for staff and students.
“This application is embedded with a hard ware that takes finger print of all staff and students. The SMAS also has a system that automatically sends messages and mails to parents at home prior to a mid and an end of term break.
Still on the indispensable uniqueness of the SMAS, Oluwatimiyein states that; “The application also generate debt list of students and parents. The application sends assessment scores and general grade of students to parents through emails and text messages. Also, SMAS sends a SMS to parents when their children comes in and leaves the school premises. We are one of the few indigenous organizations that have been able to successfully develop and put school management application system into practice in Nigeria. The uniqueness of our soft ware is that we sat down with all our clients to know what they want before programming the soft ware
He articulates more on other innovative ideas of Crystalhills that are already in use in the market;
“We have also developed a Human Resources Portal (HRP) where we have programmed a pay roll system that is
integrated into attendance system for capturing. The device takes in the attendance logs of all staff and their data. We have brought into Nigeria a Facial Recognition Attendance Devices (FRAD). When employee’s resumes at work in the morning, they come to the front of the machine; it recognizes their IRIS automatically. Therefore, at the end of the month, you just generate the time and day each staff are present at work; the device generate who came to work and who didn’t come to work and the time, minute and hour each staff arrived at work and left work.
Furthermore, he said that “the most essential part of this device is that it could generate the data of 1000 staff within 15 minutes. This device is now been used for staff appraisal by banks and some multinational corporations. It’s now being used for staff promotion and effect administrative discipline. This has written off manual record of attendance that could be easily manipulated. It also generates pay roll.
He equally conversed on the hardware Crystalhills imports into Nigeria for security of lives and properties
“One more thing, we import and install motion detectors for homes and organizations. These detectors are programmed and hanged somewhere within a property. Once an unwanted visitor moves around it, the alarm sounds; it also sends text message to your property, alerting you of the danger in your home.
“We do access control doors that programmes those who can go in or out osf a door at a particular time. We import these devices and install them on all sorts of doors. If your finger print or RFID card is not on this device, the door will never open.
“We have taken our CCTV to a greater height. We have a cloud based CCTV system that does not need to have a global IP before using our CCTV camera; all you need to do is to connect it to a programmed internet which helps you watch who is around your properties anywhere you are in the world. We did this and our innovations have saved much lives and property that I wouldn’t like to make open yet for official reason(s).”
Client base and Conclusion
When Oluwatimilehin was asked a question on the IT institutions that grilled him, he said something incredible. Hear him: “I am a product of self development. The truth of this matter is that I did not attend any IT school for training. I buy IT practical books, read the theories therein and implement them. That’s how I became a crème-de-lame in this business. I trained myself.”
“Today, we have a client base in both national and multinational corporations such as Shell exploration, Chevron, MRS oil, MRS holdings, Japaul oil, Amatem, Mopson Pharmaceutical and many others.”
For consultancy and training, Oluwatimileyin can be reached via [email protected]